SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Spring Is Coming So Are The Leaf Blowers

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

What noise-makers! And what health threats!

Gas-fired leaf blowers are under attack regionally—and way beyond.

In January, East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and the East Hampton village board brought up the possible regulation of leaf blowers. “I think the intent is there that we want to move ahead vis-à-vis the environment and the ecology of our wonderful village,” said Mayor Rickenbach.

Board member Arthur Graham called gas-leaf blowers “something that drive residents of this village crazy” and “a self-created problem by the landscape community…And there’s a fair amount of sentiment in the village to ban them outright.”

Over in Greenport, its village board, also in January, voted down proposed limits on the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. Backers of restrictions cited both noise and health risks including the spreading of airborne particulates. Opponents of limits in Greenport claimed this could increase the cost of yard clean-ups.

Restrictions have been advanced for gas-fired leaf blowers all over the area—and far afield.

In Huntington a group called Huntington CALM (Citizens Appeal for Leafblower Moderation) has been challenging them for years. Huntington CALM advocates “sustainable landscape maintenance practices and the elimination of the use of gas leaf blowers.” It states on its Facebook page that it “educates citizens of Huntington about the harm caused” by them. 

Dr. Lucy Weinstein, M.D. and MPH, chair of the New York Chapter 2 of the American Academy of Pediatrics Environmental Health Committee, and Dr. Bonnie Sager, founded Huntington CALM.

When it comes to gas-fired leaf blowers, a vested interest has been created by the landscapers who use them. They have been lobbying—as they did in Greenport—to insist the machines continue to be used. 

But as it goes in the pushing of all sorts of polluting processes and products, the claim that there is not a suitable alternative is not true. Up in New England, George P. Carrette, owner and founder of Ecoquiet Lawn Care of Concord, Massachusetts, emphasizes: “We use only zero emission, gasoline-free lawn maintenance equipment.” 

There is the alternative of battery-powered leaf blowers, he emphasizes. “There are several things to consider when converting from gas to lithium battery equipment. A huge advantage to using battery equipment…is how easy it is to market and sign up customers. The idea markets itself.”

Battery-powered leaf blowers make a small fraction of the noise of gas-fired leaf blowers and they produce a fraction of the pollution.

“When I started I had five customers,” Mr. Carrette relates. “I put lawn signs out advertising clean, quiet lawn care. I immediately got 35 inquiries from neighboring properties and communities. I was a one-man operation at the time and I was terrified about how I could meet this instant demand.”

“My first year, I was so busy I had to work holidays [but] I had no…complaints from customers or neighbors since did I did not make noise or disturb their privacy….I did not come home reeking of gasoline fumes, my wife didn’t hate doing my laundry. I didn’t lug around heavy gas cans and deal with tune-ups, degreasers, belts, hoses, etc. A true pleasure,” he said.

“Running an all-electric landscaping company is a bit different and there is a learning curve involved…You will enjoy…very happy customers. They like the fact that they are choosing a better option for the environment, their families’ health, and get to enjoy their peace and quiet. The whole neighborhood appreciates it and business just keeps getting better and better.”

And Goerge P. Carrette is not just a green landscaper in New England. 

Among areas that gas-fired leaf blowers now are banned or restricted in the United States are (since 1977) Great Neck Estates on Long Island; Sonoma and Palm Springs, California, and Biscayne Bay, Florida (banned all-year round); Maplewood, New Jersey (banned in the summer) Palm Beach, Florida (banned year-round on property under an acre); Newton, Massachusetts (banned in the summer)—and “more than a dozen communities in Westchester County have restricted or banned gas-fueled leaf blowers without the demise of the lawn care industry. When will Long Island catch up?” asks Dr. Weinstein. Altogether, some 400 hundred communities across the U.S. have enacted restrictions on gas-fired leaf-blowers. Israel has banned them entirely.

Details on the noise racket and intense pollution gas-fired leaf blowers cause next week.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.